“My mum was a bit shocked and confused by it,” says Natalie. “I had to say to her, ‘Look at the picture – it’s not me!’’

She and her mum Juliette, 70, were particularly disturbed because the sick image had been sent their home address in North Yorkshire.

“It wasn’t very nice when it happened, far from nice,” says Natalie, 39. “My mum opened the letter while I was away for the weekend so she was the one shocked. You don’t expect to see that in a letter.

“It left me feeling very vulnerable, I have to say, because it came to my home address. That was the scary part.

He had paid a specialist company to supply the home addresses of the three actresses.

Watson apologised, begged for forgiveness, and the court heard his offences had placed a “terrible strain” on his 54-year marriage.

He told police he did it simply because he was 'bored'.

Magistrates in Manchester gave him a 12-week jail sentence, which was suspended for a year.

Natalie says: “It’s happened now and he’s had his punishment. I thought he must be a very lonely man and I feel sorry for his wife. He went to such lengths. Most people wouldn’t have bothered. I was a bit surprised because of his age.

“I am not holding any grudge against the man – I think he feels badly enough as it is.

"Sometimes people need a shock to make them realise what they are doing and who they have hurt. His wife must have been very embarrassed.

She adds: “I am upgrading the ­security at my house. I have just moved in so I was going to do it anyway.

"I will be getting everything, cameras and alarms. I have got a lovely big dog that won’t let anyone near me. They would come into the house but they wouldn’t go back out.

“He’s called Bronson and is a cross between a Rottweiler and a Japanese Akita. He’s a lovely dog, a rescue dog. But he is very protective of me and anyone close to me. If anyone went to raise their arm he’d be on them in an instant.”

Back in Emmerdale, Natalie’s character Moira has just married Cain Dingle and all was blissful before a shocking revelation last night.

“He’s nice,” she says coyly. “It’s quite new. We met outside a nice wine bar where we sat on a wall. It was a very humid evening and it started to rain a bit and the bar I was in was absolutely mobbed so I went out to get some air.

Picture: Corrie's Kym Marsh was also targeted (Image: ITV)

“I was trying to get my friend’s attention to say I was going to go when he came out and sat on the wall beside me. We just started talking and it was quite boring really. We were talking about how weird the weather was.

"The wine bar was so busy that we couldn’t get served but his friend owned a restaurant and so me and my friends went round for a drink and we talked for about four hours.

“Then he took me out for a date a week later... and the rest is history.”

In the soap Moira turned the tables on Cain by proposing. So is a wedding on the cards for Natalie?

“It could be a possibility but I am not going to do the asking this time,” she says with a laugh. “But it’s not on the cards at the moment.”

Natalie landed her first acting part alongside Shirley Valentine star Tom Conti at the age of nine after she was spotted at a weekend drama school.

Holding on to her mum’s hand as people worked on the set around her, she turned to Juliette and said: “This is what I want to do”.

She says now: “It was an accident that I fell into acting. It’s not that I wanted to be famous or anything like that. I just loved watching old movies and I used to mimic people all the time.

Early role: Natalie Robb in Take The High Road in September 1999 (Image: Daily Record)

“I really like pretending. I used to go out into the garden and fields and created little characters. I just fell into it.”

Over the years Natalie has been in everything from Take the High Road to London’s Burning, The Bill and Waking the Dead. But her first big TV break came at the age of 13 when she won the BBC Young Entertainer of the Year award.

She says: “ I did impressions. My brother entered me into a talent show on Going Live with Phillip Schofield behind my back. It was so embarrassing.

"Out of the blue I got a letter inviting me to auditions in Glasgow. I didn’t know what was happening but then I thought, ‘Why not?’

“I did my little act which was a mixture of EastEnders characters talking to people from Corrie with a bit of Neighbours and Prince Charles.

“I got through and I won it, which was incredible. I still have the trophy - Kylie Minogue presented it.”

Screen hubby: Natalie in Emmerdale with Cain

Shortly after that her parents split up and for years she rarely saw her dad. Natalie says: “I had to move and that’s what I found sadder. You get on with life though but it wasn’t a nice time.

" I see my dad sometimes. We have a lot better relationship now.”

Emmerdale has been kicked around the schedules thanks to the World Cup but Moira is at the centre of the action again as shocked Cain learns that James is the father of her son Adam.

Natalie says: “It was a one-night stand a long time ago – it was just a mistake to her.

"Cain isn’t happy. I am the one person he trusted and I betrayed him as far as he is concerned.

“But it was great fun to do and I love having so many great storylines.”

Emmerdale is on ITV1 tonight at 7pm and 8pm and next week every night except Monday.